1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus which can record (write) or reproduce (read out) information using a disc recording medium (used as a recording medium) and a recording/reproducing method that uses, for example, light or near field light (having a propagation distance that is shorter than the wavelength of light), or light and magnetism, or only magnetism. More particularly, the present invention relates to a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus having a label printing function capable of adsorbing a mist of ink drops generated when information recorded on a disc recording medium (used in the disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus) or, for example, items related to the information are printed onto, for example, a label surface using, for example, characters, symbols, photographs, pictures, or patterns. In addition, more particularly, the present invention relates to a mist adsorbing method of adsorbing mist generated when this printing is performed.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical disc apparatus using an optical disc as a recording medium is generally known as a typical example of a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus that records or reproduces information using a disc recording medium. The optical disc apparatus is known as an apparatus that writes and reads out data using as a recording medium an optical disc, such as a CD or a DVD, having a recording capacity of a few megabytes or a few gigabytes. In general, the optical disc apparatus is widely used. The types of optical disc apparatuses can be divided in accordance with methods of handling the optical disc, that is, into a tray method and a slot-in method.
A tray-type optical disc apparatus includes a tray capable of being inserted into and removed from a housing of the apparatus. An optical disc placed on the tray is conveyed to a disc mounting position (where a recording/reproducing operation in the housing of the apparatus is executed) and to a disc removal position (situated outside the housing of the apparatus). In contrast, in a slot-in type optical disc apparatus, a disc slot is formed in a housing of the apparatus and a disc conveying mechanism that sandwiches and conveys an optical disc is provided at the inner side of the disc slot. In the slot-in type optical disc apparatus, when the optical disc is inserted into the disc slot, the disc conveying mechanism sandwiches the optical disc and conveys it to the disc mounting position. In addition, when a disc ejecting operation is selected by operating an eject button, the disc conveying mechanism holds the optical disc and conveys it from the disc mounting position to the disc removal position.
There is a strong demand for such optical disc apparatuses to, for example, have high recording capacity and perform high-density recording. As a result, in recent years, for example, Blu-Ray Disc (BD) (trademark) and High Definition-Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD), which can perform high-density recording, have been provided. A basic structure of the BD and HD-DVD is similar to that of a related optical disc apparatus (such as a DVD). By reducing the wavelength of a light source and increasing the numerical aperture (NA) of a lens, the recording capacities of the BD and the HD-DVD are increased from five times to at least 10 times the recording capacity of, for example, a DVD. When the number of optical disc apparatuses that can perform high-density recording is increased, the amount of information that is recorded is significantly increased. When the number of recorded optical discs is increased, the optical discs can no longer be easily handled.
The basics of information management of optical discs is to make clear what is recorded on the optical discs. As a method for achieving this, the following method has been proposed. In the method, for example, the content of recorded information is written as an information signal to an information recording surface of an optical disc, and is manually written to a label surface provided opposite to the information recording surface. As a method of writing information to a label surface, the following method has been proposed. In the method, a printing device having an inkjet print head is mounted to an optical disc apparatus, and the information is written using the printing device.
As an apparatus for performing label printing in such an optical disc apparatus, for example, an optical disc apparatus having an inkjet head mounted to an optical disc drive and performing label printing on a rotating optical disc has been proposed (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-238005).
Hitherto, in an inkjet printing device that performs printing on a print medium, such as paper, in addition to an optical disc, when ink drops are discharged from a print head, floating mist (ink drops) is produced in a space between the print head and a print object without the floating mist (the ink drops) reaching a print object surface. When this mist is discharged from the print head, the mist loses speed due to air resistance, moves on air currents in a vicinity thereof, and floats. Therefore, when the floating mist is scattered to the vicinity thereof, the floating mist adheres to portions other than a print surface, thereby staining the interior of the device.
A way of overcoming this problem in such an inkjet printing device is discussed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-124187. This document discusses an inkjet recording apparatus in which ink drops or some of the ink drops ejected by a recording head are controlled or collected by electrostatic force to perform a recording operation. The inkjet recording apparatus discussed in this document (first related example) includes an inkjet recording head, a first electrode, a second electrode, and a voltage controller. The inkjet recording head has an ejection opening that ejects ink drops and an energy generator that causes ink in the ejection opening to be ejected. The first electrode is provided so as to be electrically conductive with the ink in the ejection opening. The second electrode is separated from the ejection opening by a predetermined distance and faces the ejection opening. The voltage controller applies a first voltage and a second voltage to the first electrode and the second electrode. During a time from when the ejection of the ink from the ejection opening is started to when the ink is divided into at least two ink drops during the ink ejection, the voltage controller applies the first voltage. Immediately after this time, the voltage controller applies the second voltage which has the same polarity as the first voltage and whose absolute value is smaller than that of the first voltage.
Another way of overcoming this problem is discussed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-307725. This document discusses an inkjet recording apparatus that records an image by discharging recording liquid drops, such as ink drops, onto a recording medium. The inkjet recording apparatus discussed in this document (related example 2) is a liquid discharging recording apparatus that records an image by discharging recording liquid drops onto a recording medium, and that includes a blowing-out unit and an air sucking unit. The blowing-out unit blows out air to a recording area. The air sucking unit is disposed opposite to the blowing-out unit with the recording area being disposed therebetween, and sucks air.
However, the first related example and the second related example make use of a printing method (what is called an “XY printing method”) in which a print head is translationally moved in a main scanning operation, and a print object is moved in a sub-scanning operation, the main scanning operation and the sub-scanning operation being perpendicular to each other. In this printing method, since the print head is moved through a distance corresponding to the width of the print object, a mist adsorbing mechanism needs to be provided in an entire movement range of the print head.
The movement of the print head in the main scanning operation is a reciprocating movement. Therefore, a scattered state of mist during the reciprocating movement of the print head in a forward path of the print head differs from a scattered state of mist during the reciprocating movement of the print head in a return path of the print head. Consequently, in each of the first and second related examples, the mist adsorbing mechanism may not function effectively. As a result, the mist of ink drops generated during the printing cannot be reliably adsorbed, thereby staining peripheral portions by the mist.